My New Years’ Pixel

The word “resolution” is derived from the Latin and it means to loosen or release. It is used in a scientific sense, to reduce something into it’s simpler parts. Later it was used to mean the resolving of a mathematical problem and from there it took on the meaning of resolving conflicts. So, for example, to find a solution between two points of view in a legislature or at a board meeting, a “resolution” or solution is decided. From there, it is easy to see how “resolution” takes on the meaning of a firm decision, determined or resolute.

It was a couple hundred years ago when people started talking in terms of making New Years’ resolutions, a promises to oneself to make a change, presumably for the better. This practice might have more to do with January than the new year, because in ancient Rome there was an annual tradition of making promises to Janus (from whom the month is named).

I guess that the simplest part of a computer or TV screen is a pixel, and we just happen to refer to the “resolution” of a screen in pixels.

I had a friend who made a New Years’ resolution for everyone she knew. She wanted everyone to start calling her Kathleen rather than Kathy. Oddly, I think that’s a resolution everyone kept.

I don’t see anything wrong with making New Years’ resolutions or with people trying to improve something about themselves. The determination however, doesn’t need to wait for the new year, in fact it depends in no way to the calendar. The draw back to New Years’ resolutions is the undo pressure we place on ourselves.

It seems to me that there is enough pressure, of one kind or another, placed on all of us these days. My New Years’ pixel is to be a positive influence in any place I have an influence at all. Oh, and if someone wants me to call them Kathleen rather than what I currently call them, I will.

By the way—I haven’t a clue where the apostrophe goes in the years part of the phrase “new years’” and because I know that whatever I do I will be corrected, I no longer care.